Lunch Menus for a Week of Pastry Class

Last week, I was asked to assist in the Be a Pastry Chef for a Week class at Tante Marie's, which was enormously fun. Ironically, as a new graduate of the pastry program, I spent the first half of each day preparing lunch for the group of 14+. (I found it strange to leave the school with my hands smelling of garlic, rather than butter and sugar.) It was hard work, but I was most surprised by the amount of time it took to put together such large meals. Everything, from boiling water to washing lettuce, takes much longer than for two, four, even six diners. I should have known that, but I guess I've never really single-handedly cooked a meal for that many people before. But, it was wonderful to come in and for a few hours focus solely on making food. It also gave me some great meal planning ideas for home -- and everything I made, luckily, is scalable. I'm going to list all of the ingredients in each main dish so that a.) you can try to recreate them if you like and b.) I can try to remember them.

P.S. I ordered a pair of shoes and they arrived today looking even more gorgeous in person. So in honor of my new heeled friends and their Art Deco-inspired design, I'm going to use the Riesling font for my menu. It seems fitting.